A FORMER kickboxing champion has been found guilty of breaking a six-month-old puppy’s leg in a fit of rage.

Gary Taylor, 42, of Barony Court, Nantwich, was found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to ‘Valentine’, his German Shepherd-Rottweiler cross puppy, at South Cheshire Magistrates Court on Monday.

The incident happened on August 7 last year.

Taylor said the dog “went berserk” when he tried to take him out to ‘do his business’.

He said: “He ran off into the bedroom and jumped on the bed. I went to grab him but he bit me and ran out of the room.”

Taylor told the court Valentine ran around his flat causing chaos before returning to the bedroom, urinating and defecating on the bed.

“He showed his teeth and went for me, just missing my face, and that’s when I kicked him,” said Taylor.

He denied it was a hard kick but admitted in a police interview that he “had lost it” and “did not know how hard I can kick”.

He also claimed he had no idea ‘Valentine’ was hurt.

Under veterinary examination, the puppy was also found to have liver damage and air to the thoracic cavity – attributed to a trauma injury.

But Chris Joseph, defending, said all the injuries could have occurred during one of two previous incidents – one involving a bicycle collision a month earlier and another where a car battery fell from a shelf on the pup just a few days before the attack.

But District Judge Nicholas Sanders said he was “absolutely sure, as eggs is eggs” that Taylor had caused the fracture but said he could not be certain the liver damage and thoracic injuries were a result of the attack.

He added: “The dog may have been playing up and may have been baring its teeth but does that justify kicking it with such force? Absolutely not.”